Jim Clark's History Of The World

Nation & world - BRIEFING

October 29, 1996|By Jim Clark of The Sentinel Staff

ON THIS DATE IN 1618 Englishman Sir Walter Raleigh was executed in London for treason. . . .

In 1796 the first U.S. ship entered a California port.

In 1833 the first Greek-letter college fraternity was founded. . . . In 1877 Nathan Bedford Forrest died; the former Confederate cavalry commander was the first leader, then called the Grand Wizard, of the Ku Klux Klan. . . . In 1891 Franny Borach was born. She grew up to be ''Funny Girl'' Fanny Brice. . . . In 1923 the musical Runnin' Wild opened at New York City's Colonial Theater. It introduced the Charleston dance.

In 1929 the stock market crashed, setting off the Great Depression. . . . In 1940 the United States launched the first peacetime draft to meet the growing threat of Adolf Hitler. . . . In 1945 ballpoint pens went on sale at New York's Gimbels Bros. department store and quickly sold out at $12.50 each, even though some banks suggested that ballpoint pen signatures might not be legal.

In 1956 NBC premiered The Huntley-Brinkley Report, replacing The Camel News Caravan. Chet Huntley and David Brinkley signed off with the closing that what would become their trademark: ''Good night, David; Good night, Chet.'' . . . In 1966 the National Organization for Women was founded. . . . In 1967 the counterculture musical Hair opened off-Broadway.